Young co-eds are disappearing in an unnamed college town and oddly enough, the perpetrator is kindly old Mrs. Pringle, who runs a local wig shop, and her mentally challenged son, Rodney. He kills and scalps the girls so mama can carry on with business, but now someone is catching on to them. Another nosy co-ed is determined to solve the mystery of the disappearances.
Holy crap, so many WTF scenes in this movie. And it starts right at the beginning. The opening scene before the credits is as odd as they come, consisting of two mannequin heads with wigs and cut-out construction paper faces basically talking about the plot of the movie about to start. I couldn't even hear what they were saying half the time because I was laughing so hard. Absolutely pointless filler? Indeed. Wonderful in its silliness? Undoubtedly. Oh, but the WTF was not even close to being over with this scene. Still plenty more to look forward to.
But... we have to introduce some kind of plot first. As the first real scene shows, Mrs. Pringle's operation goes something like this: she advertises a room for rent in her wig shop, a girl with a nice head of hair comes by inquiring about it, Pringle introduces her to her stuffed cat Napoleon (more on that later), then sends her into a room behind the wig shop where Rodney waits to attack and scalp. All the girls that we see meet this fate just sort of wander around without fighting back or anything so they kinda deserve to die for being so r-tarded.
Then we meet one of the most annoying characters ever, Kathy, the college girl who seems to be obsessed with solving mysteries - which we find out because several characters say something to that effect several times throughout the movie. Her boyfriend Dave has a habit of throwing a bitch fit every time Kathy says something that doesn't involve her tongue in his mouth so he instantly becomes the second most annoying character ever. Kathy only becomes involved with Pringle and Rodney because her friend Dawn is looking for a place off-campus, so we know that she's going to die and Kathy's going to go looking for her because she's nosy and annoying.
But honestly, screw the plot. I really just want to talk about the other WTF stuff. Case in point: Napoleon. The stuffed jaguar or whatever the hell it is in Mrs. Pringle's house that she talks to all the time. Of course it's probably there to add to the overall ridiculous nature and black comedy of the movie, but Mrs. Pringle herself pretty much takes care of most of that. Kudos to this actress for her commitment, as her comedic performance definitely made the movie a lot more bearable. Pringle shoots off these crazy lines full of wisdom and tropes, always asking affirmation from Napoleon. And nobody who encounters her has the heart to call her a crazy bitch. How nice.
More WTF occurs at the drive-in movie. Kathy and Dave are necking in the car, but the far more interesting part of this scene is the movie they are watching. I don't know what the hell kind of movie this is supposed to be. I am, however, interested in seeing the rest of it if there is more. The movie is a headless man and woman sitting at a dinner table (headless because the camera never fully shows their faces), and the woman is saying all kinds of clingy and womany shit to the man, Terrence, who only seems interested in the food on the table. He crushes the potato chips, scarfs a banana, takes a bit out of an apple, crushes a peach... not listening to anything the woman is saying (understandably, too). Lewis intercuts all this weird shit with shots of Kathy and Dave but for some reason this movie takes precedence in this scene - more filler is my only guess. Again, I could not stop laughing, especially when the woman started fondling her beer glass. Too fucking funny.
The whole thing ends rather unceremoniously when Douchey Dave brings the police to Pringle's house just as Kathy is about to get it from Rodney. She pokes him in the eye with a hat pin, they show his gooey eye in closeup and then... he dies. I don't really remember how. A short epilogue scene shows the wig shop closed and then there's a random shot of Napoleon to end it all. An hour and twelve minutes of pure WTF and nobody could have done it better than Herschell, I swear to goodness. This man is a genius of bad movies and I love him for it. Beyond "so bad it's good," The Gruesome Twosome is cinematic gold at its best... worst... it sucks, but it's awesome... you know what I mean.
Two Thousand Maniacs, be prepared to meet my DVD player very soon.
Movie Review: The Gruesome Twosome (1967). There are any Movie Review: The Gruesome Twosome (1967) in here.
Also impressive is the direction and camerawork which is fluid, artistic and at times quite inventive for the director having to film in such a small space (almost all the scenes are in Margot and Daniel's tiny Brooklyn apartment). There's one really nice day-to-night transition from the window and lots of different camera angles to keep the action and the story interesting and different in every scene. The lighting matches the apparent dark and depressing world that the characters live in, with tints of blue and green to make it look more bleak.
Whoever got the job of cockroach creating and puppeteering must have had a good time. The roaches (C.O.U.Ss - Cockroaches Of Unusual Size... absolutely love that) look pretty good for what they are, and the somewhat crude appearance of them actually adds a lot to the comedy element of the film. One of the best scenes is when Daniel traps the roach in a bag, it flails around for a bit while Margot tries to hit it with a baseball bat, and then it drags both of them down the hallway. I'm not so sure about it being able to be flushed down a toilet, but I guess they had to leave the big kill for the movie's climactic scene.
They Will Outlive Us All is a wonderfully shot and acted feature worthy of standing beside any other comedy horror out there. It's a tad short at only 73 minutes but that doesn't matter - I watched it twice after receiving it and thoroughly enjoyed it both times, actually wanting more by the time it was over. If you get the chance, don't miss seeing this one!
For more information on this movie and other productions the cast and crew are involved in, go to www.theywilloutliveusall.com.
Indie Movie Review: They Will Outlive Us All (2013). There are any Indie Movie Review: They Will Outlive Us All (2013) in here.
A few months ago the teaser trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was released. Below is the Lego version of the same trailer that does a great job recreating it, all with Lego (and likely some Lego looking CGI).Lego The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Teaser Trailer. There are any Lego The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Teaser Trailer in here.
Below is a short video interview with Evangeline Lilly for What's Trending as she comments on her The Hobbit role of Tauriel and the fan reaction trailer video. She looks fantastic but got to admit I much prefer her longer, straighter hairstyle look.Evangeline Lilly Video Interview. There are any Evangeline Lilly Video Interview in here.
Movie Review: The Wizard of Gore (1970). There are any Movie Review: The Wizard of Gore (1970) in here.
Two new images have popped up online for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The first is a scene that probably will occur at a midway point in the movie as the dwarves escape capture using barrels. The image seems so staged in layout that I suspect it is really part of another poster and not a still from the movie. Speaking of posters, there is also a new one with an image of Bilbo being reflected in the eye of Smaug. Update: Added two new but old images. The first is a watermark free image of Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel from early June while the other is a still from the recent teaser trailer.New Poster and Image from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Updated). There are any New Poster and Image from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Updated) in here.
So what happens? Well, a bar owner hires a hit man to murder a business associate, and an innocent waitress gets caught in the middle when the hit man shows up at her house on the way out of town.
The biggest complaint I've read about this movie is that it is "slow." While that adjective might accurately describe other movies, I don't think it's the right one for Crawl. Crawl is more "methodical," I would say, and only "slow" if it fails to hook you in right away. Anybody with any kind of movie savvy will pick up on the influence of the Coen Brothers and Hitchcock with this methodical style. Not a rip-off of their style, mind you - the influence. It's easy to say that the filmmakers just ripped off Psycho and Blood Simple, but I say that if it worked there, it's gotta work here. And boy, does it ever. Each frame and scene is painstakingly laid out with real directorial skill, and the suspense scenes will have you on that cliched edge of your seat.
The music, and sometimes lack of music, is extremely helpful in conveying that suspense. At times it is only a few carefully repeated notes, and at times it is a jarring cacophony like the screeching violins from Psycho. Mostly, though, I'd say that silence serves the movie best for key scenes. As the waitress Marilyn investigates a creaking door in her house, the lack of music gives the audience no cues as to what to expect - a real scare or a fake out? Will the bad guy show up on the other end of the banging door or somewhere else? The way the movie revealed all of its surprises was something that I really enjoyed watching.
The movie's less than exciting pace is made up for by some scenes of real brutality. The murder at the beginning is of course only the beginning, as the situation gets exponentially worse. Crawl turns out to be quite a bloody piece by the end - there's a car crash, a bludgeoning, and most deliciously, an axe put to awesome use. The makeup work is realistic and gory, but nothing over-exaggerated just for the sake of being gory. Not that I ever have a problem with that - it just wouldn't have worked for this movie.
The hit man, or "The Stranger" as he is credited, is one of the best and oddest casting choices I've ever seen. He's an old Croatian, tall and skinny, dressed like a cowboy. He's the guy you'd probably see drinking coffee by himself at a diner or something. While we're talking Coen Brothers, I guess I'd be remiss not to compare him to Javier Bardem from No Country for Old Men. The Stranger is the same expressionless, emotionless killer as Bardem (minus the cool nail gun thing, of course), and his grandfatherly appearance is almost an excellent cover for what turns out to be a wholly unpredictable and calculating demeanor.
Georgina Haig as Marilyn (whose full name we find out from the credits is Marilyn Burns... hahaha) is also perfect casting for this role. Her big doe eyes fill the screen, her innocence in this crazy situation heightened by her good-girl blonde hair and cute little dress. She isn't given much by way of character development but that didn't bother me too much here, because this felt more to me like a situational movie rather than a character-driven one.
Crawl is a movie deserving of every word of praise on its poster up there. It is a very successful slow-burn thriller that will hopefully have most movie fans salivating over the awesome that oozes out of it. Definitely keep your eyes out for this one.
Movie Review: Crawl (2011). There are any Movie Review: Crawl (2011) in here.
With my Sons of Anarchy obsession temporarily satiated, I guess it's time for me to get back to my real job here. I have a backlog of watched movies that need reviews, a host of books that need to be read and reviewed, and of course the ever-growing Netflix queue that needs to be worked through. Good thing I've got vacation time coming up. I also had an almost-catastrophe with my computer a couple of days ago, but everything seems to be fine now. So let's get this shit going!A news reporter who was present at an ecological disaster outbreak in Claridge, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay narrates the chaos as it unfolded on that fateful day, using all the professional and personal video footage that was confiscated by the government to cover up what happened.
The Bay offers horror fans a few welcome differences from what we are used to seeing in FF movies. The reporter, Donna Thompson, is Skyping with someone who is interviewing her about the 4th of July from hell in Chesapeake Bay for a documentary about the truth of the events. Donna is sort of the main character, but her narration also shows us the experiences of several other residents. It's nice to have more than one or two of the same cameramen to follow through the whole movie, as The Bay includes security footage, video phone footage, personal camcorders, police dashcam footage, and Skype conversations.
All these new shifts in point of view keep the story interesting and engaging, and the suspense heightened. The way they are all cut together lets the audience slowly get the truth, as everybody involved seems to have a little piece of the puzzle as to what is going on. The two scientists that are doing research on the water and the fish a few weeks before the 4th and the doctor at the local hospital talking to the CDC having probably the most interesting stories. The stuff with the police was a little random and not really related to the main story, though. And I really liked the choice of casting for all involved. Kristin Connolly was the only recognizable face to me (The Cabin in the Woods, FTW) but everybody looked just like they were supposed to - normal people in this quaint little seaside town. I love it when movies are cast like that.
The other difference with The Bay is that it is an infection story. It's not an infection that leads to zombiism, either, it's a true infection by a mutated parasite caused by all the (literal) shit that's been building up in the bay. The terror and fear from an outbreak like this is just as real for both the characters and the audience as it would be for zombies or a masked killer. This kind of story also gets us into the realm of body horror, which personally freaks me and grosses me out. There's plenty of nasty stuff for all to enjoy like bodies covered in disgusting boils, and those gross little bug-parasite things coming out of people's necks. I love it and I hate it at the same time.
My only real complaint is that the makeup on the people who had the nasty boils did not look all that realistic to me. They were too obviously makeup and looked kind of dried out to me when I thought boils and blisters were more... I don't know, liquidy.
Do I care about the film's not-so-subliminal message about humans fucking up the environment and stuff? Not really, but it's definitely there. The whole disaster is caused by a chicken farm dumping chicken poop into the water, the local officials covering up/ignoring early warning signs of impending doom, and bad water tests at a desalination plant. Poop and toxicity apparently make these little parasites, or isopods, grow rapidly inside the body and then they just eat their way out. I guess it's a good way to send the message about how it might be a bad idea to drink water that people dumped chicken poop into.
The Bay gets a solid thumbs up from this found footage lover. It's an interesting turn for director Barry Levinson, and gives me another reason to really fear nature. As if I needed that.
Movie Review: The Bay (2012). There are any Movie Review: The Bay (2012) in here.
The cover story for German magazine Cinema has provided a few spoilers for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug that will hit theaters on December 13. As translated by ThorinOakenshield.net, the article provides a little bit on insight on the story that Peter Jackson and company is crafting for the trilogy. While a lot of it could be inferred from the book itself, Jackson isn't sticking 100% to the novel and he is mixing in The Lord of the Rings Appendices giving him plenty of opportunity to surprise. Below are choice quotes from the article. The image to the left of Tauriel and Legolas is courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.Read more »
Desolation of Smaug Story Tidbits, New Tauriel Image. There are any Desolation of Smaug Story Tidbits, New Tauriel Image in here.
Argh, each new little piece of information I read about this Pet Sematary documentary just gets me more and more excited to see it! Now the filmmakers have released a trailer for Unearthed and Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary, which has been years in the making as they have done extensive research and interviews with I think just about everybody that was even remotely connected to the movie! That's love, friends, and you all should know that I have mad love for Pet Sematary. Getting to meet Denise Crosby and Mary Lambert at the convention a few months only solidified that love, and now I can't wait to see this doc and add it to my collection.Here's a link to the Facebook page for the doc: https://www.facebook.com/UnearthedandUntold
And here's the amazing trailer! Get excited, horror peeps.
Trailer for Unearthed and Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary!. There are any Trailer for Unearthed and Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary! in here.
Thanks to MovieStop, we now have a more detailed look at the contents of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition that is set for release on November 5th in about five different combinations including an Amazon exclusive Riddles in the Dark statue (links below). As previously announced, this edition follows the pattern of the Lord of the Rings versions with 13 minutes of new footage, The Appendices, new commentary and extra features. However that was about the extent of the extra feature details until now. You can pre-order from Amazon now: 3D Blu-ray Set | Blu-ray Set | DVD Set | 3D Blu-ray Amazon Exclusive Statue Edition | Blu-ray Amazon Exclusive Statue Edition• The Filmmakers' Commentary - Director/writer/producer Peter Jackson and writer/co-producer Philippa Boyens provide their perspective and stories on creating the first film.
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